Meeting of Like Minds
by bittereluctance
Summary: The Doctor meets an impersonator trying to fix the broken lives the Doctor leaves behind.


EXT. DOWNTOWN LONDON – NIGHT

The Doctor and his companion step out joyously from the TARDIS

DOCTOR

Welcome home!

COMPANION

We're in Brixton. And not a good

area either. Only 15 miles off though,

closer than you usually are.

DOCTOR

Something not right…

COMPANION

Yeah, we're in Brixton.

DOCTOR

Yeah but of all places to accidentally

land, why Brixton?

COMPANION

It's not all bad. I can hear music

playing, and that reminds me that I've

never seen you dance.

DOCTOR

Because of very intricate and calculated

efforts on my part.

COMPANION takes lifts the psychic paper out of the Doctor's pocket and walks towards a bouncer at a nearby club door.

COMPANION

And once again, your calculations are

wrong.

(To the BOUNCER) We haven't missed the

show have we?

BOUNCER

I think they've still got some songs left.

Enjoy!

COMPANION

(looking at the paper) Look at that,

VIP!

THE DOCTOR and COMPANION float around the back of the crowd trying to get a glimpse of the stage.

SINGER

This next one goes out to the mysterious

young man that just walked into the back

The CROWD turns to look at the DOCTOR and COMPANION as "Mr. Blue Sky begins to play. The DOCTOR'S face falls as he has flashbacks of ELTON, a big ELO fan whose involvement in a hunt for the DOCTOR lead to the death of his friends and the injury of his love. Snapping himself out of it THE DOCTOR quickly leaves with the COMPANION on his heels.

COMPANION

Not an ELO fan I take it?

The DOCTOR begins to pace frantically.

DOCTOR

Something wrong something is very very

extremely wrong.

COMPANION

What's going on?

DOCTOR

(_still pacing_) We need to get back to

the TARDIS. Those people know something,

know something about me. _(Behind him, _

_COMPANION begins looking closely at the _

_show posters on the wall.) _I don't think

this is a coincidence.

COMPANION

I don't think so either.

The DOCTOR turns and holds the light of the sonic screwdriver up to the faded poster. A man who is the spitting image of the tenth Doctor is holding a sonic screwdriver in front of his face. The blue light obscures his features, but the brown hair and blue suit are unmistakable. Underneath the picture are the words _COME MEET THE DOCTOR_

MYSTERY WOMAN (O.S.)

Leaving the show so soon? We've been

waiting so patiently for you to come visit.

DOCTOR

Who are you?

WOMAN

Follow me, there's someone who wants to

meet you.

INT. CONCERT HALL BACKROOM – NIGHT

THE DOCTOR and COMPANION follow WOMAN in the backroom of the concert hall. A man in blue suit is waiting in the room with his back turned. When they enter the room he turns to greet them with a smile. He is dressed like the tenth Doctor to a tee.

MAN

Doctor! So good of you to join us!

THE DOCTOR stare at him coldly, calculating.

MAN

I'm the Doctor! At least that's what

everyone here calls me. But I can see

you're not too happy about that so you

can call me whatever you like.

DOCTOR

(_with false amusement) _How about Jim,

Jim's a nice name. Or what about John.

JOHN

I like John. I've known a lot of good

Johns.

DOCTOR

Okay then John, why are you stealing

my name?

JOHN

You flatter yourself Doctor, the name

doesn't actually belong to _you_. I could

be any doctor. I could be Dr. John Watson.

He was called by his title all the time in Doyle's stories.

DOCTOR

But you're not copying Doyle, you're

copying me. An outdated copy at that.

JOHN

Well you're more interesting than Watson.

DOCTOR

(_with venom_) I am a dangerous man to

impersonate.

JOHN

You know why I like the UK? Everywhere

else in the world I would be Dr. John Watson,

but here I'm just the Doctor. And I get to

hear fascinating stories from people who

knew another Doctor, one in a blue suit. A fantastic Doctor an unbelievable Doctor, an impossible Doctor.

DOCTOR

You're not the first one to chase me John.

JOHN

Oh but I'm the first one to know you.

I know more about you than any other

living being in time or space. You would

be _amazed _by what I know about you. It

makes me a great Watson to your Holmes.

You're impossibly clever man who knows how impossibly clever he is, running around

solving impossibly intricate mysteries

while leaving the dirty work to those who

can stand his presence for a short time.

And I'm the man who holds all of your

secrets, the man you would keep very safe

if you knew what was good for you

DOCTOR

Are you threatening me?

JOHN

I'm warning you. I don't want to be the

Doctor, I don't. I should've moved on years  
ago, to other countries to other shows. But

this country is more lost and confused

and abandoned than any other I've been

to and they don't even know why. Thousands

and thousands of people have lost loved

ones to strange events and they've accepted

the loss but they can't move on because

nobody can tell them why no one is even acknowledging the question. Doctor, you've

left an enormous wound in the conscience

of this particular race of humans and I'm

helping close it up.

DOCTOR

If you tell them anything you'll only

endanger them more!

JOHN

You think I'm trying to bring them closer

to you? That is last thing I want. You have

a terrible track record with humans that know

you intimately.

(_TO COMPANION_) There are two words darling,

that you should fear above all others as

long as you travel with him. "I'm sorry".

God forbid he ever says those words to you because your life is about to be destroyed forever if it even continues passed those syllables.

(_TO DOCTOR_) Doctor it is very important to me

that I singularly hold the knowledge of your existence. I'm not spreading you to the world, I'm erasing you from it.

DOCTOR

My enemies will come looking for you if you

keep this up.

JOHN

They already have. And in case they can't

tell I'm human immediately I carry insurance.

JOHN pulls out a gun and points it at the DOCTOR.

DOCTOR

Your gun would be useless against the

weapons by enemies have.

JOHN

It's true, it wouldn't hold up against a

Dalek or a Sontaran. But anyone willing

to chase a rumor across the universe to

find you knows you would never let this

pass through your hands.

DOCTOR

Why are you doing this? Why is this so

important?

JOHN

This isn't a concert Doctor, it's a support

group for people whose lives have changed

because of you. People whose loved ones were killed by mannequins, whose homes were

destroyed by Christmas stars, who saw

your running through devastation, who

watched others sacrifice everything for a

man in a suit. Most of these people you

never met. Some you ran past, some

you knew briefly, and some were your best friends. I've talked to them all. I know all their stories.

DOCTOR

You cannot keep those secrets.

JOHN

Why can't I? You do it pretty well.

Tell me, what does she know about your

past companions? The people that knew

you the best? Does she know about the

husband and wife stranded in the past

away from their families and friends?

About the woman that loved you that you

turned into a freelance soldier? How about

the woman _you _loved, whom you stranded on a parallel universe with your genocidal twin

who was genetically spawned from the DNA of another woman? Does she even know about Donna?

DOCTOR

What do you know about Donna?

JOHN

A woman came to me one day, a fiery

redhead at the end of her rope. When she

got married she won the lottery, and became

a billionaire overnight. She invested well

and hadn't had to work for years. I'm sure

you thought it was a grand gift, money, but

it's interesting what happens to someone who

owns so much of it. A lost girl like Donna

didn't have any hobby to fall back on, she

only had one in her life and it was erased

from her mind. Except it wasn't, completely.

The more idle hours she spent, the more

this old idea kept scratching at the back

of her subconscious like a bug biting at her brain she said, an itch she could never

scratch. It was like going to work all day

not knowing if you locked the door, but

never being able to get validation. Just

always wondering. Any attempt to seek psychotherapy to retrieve the lost idea

or memory or thought was so strongly

discouraged by her parents that she gave up

and let itch get worse and worse until all

she could think about was the thing she

couldn't think of. Then she sees a poster

of mind and the itch gets a little easier

to bear. She doesn't know why this is clicking but she come to talk to me after show and explains her bizarre predicament. Not daring

to hope that I could help, but out of a desperation when she had no where else to go.

I gave her some basic dream techniques to bring out thoughts from her subconscious and pretty soon she was dreaming of her adventures with you.

DOCTOR

What did you tell her?! If she remembered

me she could've _died_.

JOHN

I figured it was something like that. And

the last thing I wanted was for her to go

chasing after you when she had so much

potential for happy human life. It was

easy enough to convince her the man in the

dreams was me, we have a similar build,

hair, dress, manner of speech. The mystery

man was saving her in dreams, and she had

come to me as a last chance at help.

Eventually I had her focus her dreams on

her role, not what the mysterious man in

the blue suit was doing. How did she act,

what deeds as she doing, how did she feel

in the dream completing those deeds? She

was able to see a whole new side of herself,

the Donna you created and then took away.

The itching idea melted with the dreams,

and the dreams gave her confidence in real

life. Pretty soon she took over your role

in the adventures, and she couldn't even

describe what you looked like the next

morning. Donna used her newfound confidence

to start a nonprofit helping children from

tough background gain confidence and education and realize their aspirations. Doctor Donna, charity of the year.

Everyone is infatuated with her. Her

personality, her flare, her confidence,

the media and the public eat her up. The

woman who had everything showed how useless

it was without the right inner control,

and now she's sharing her lessons with

the world.

DOCTOR

You fixed her.

JOHN

No I just showed her how to get her life

back after you took it away.

DOCTOR

I had to.

JOHN

Yes. You did. You saved her life like you

always do, and then you left like you always

do. You gave up on her and ran away. Left her with your conscience to rot.

DOCTOR

You always said bad things happen to people

who know me intimately. And you're right.

You're endangering yourself to. You're endangering your loved ones just as much

as me.

JOHN

Are you ever afraid for your life?

DOCTOR

No.

JOHN

Because you've accepted that when death

comes, it's probably overdue. You don't particularly _want _to die but you know it

wouldn't be so bad. Because you don't _have _

a future. You don't have a home or a race

or anybody who could possibly keep up with

you for as long as you want to run. So you

save people. Make yourself feel better. And

keep moving towards danger because really,

the thrill of danger is the last thing worth living for. I'm right. I know I'm right

because I'm the same way. I'm a French-Irish American rejected from Ireland, France,

and America. I don't have a home, I don't

have a race to call my own, I have close companions I try to keep safe that I know

will want to settle far before I'm ready to

stop running. So I save people. Your people.

And put myself in danger. Because what else

is there for people like us to do?

DOCTOR

You could come with me. We could find

a home together.

JOHN

Yes but if I abandon the human race now there'd be no distinguishing us at all.

DOCTOR

All this hate for me, all this built up resentment. You think you know me from stories so it gives you the right but you know nothing of who I am or the things I do for this world.

JOHN

I don't hate you because of what you do

or who you are. I hate you because you

don't understand it. Because you don't

understand what it means to be human.

You don't understand that the only thing

we know with certainty is that our lives

are very short and insignificant in the

grand scheme of the universe. You don't understand how precious that makes each

and every life. You don't understand how devastating it is to watch an already

miniscule life get stop short by someone

who takes time for granted. We count our

seconds and horde them together and you

play with time like it's a toy. And you're reckless with your toy and you break us

and leave before you have to pick up the

pieces. That's what I call myself the Doctor. Because someone has to pick up the pieces.


End file.
